Skyward
by IncognitiveSky
Summary: "Bagon, the Rock Head Pokémon. To realize its dreams to one day soar in the sky. It will hurl itself off cliffs and as a result, its head has grown tough and as hard as tempered steel."
1. Chapter 1

**Skyward**

**Chapter #1 – Falling Meteor**

_~ Disclaimers: I do NOT own Pokemon or anything associated with it._

Brendan never had a chance to get out of the way in time.

He only had a few seconds notice when a rumbling crash like distant thunder above made him tilt his head skywards to catch sight of what appeared to be a small, azure boulder tumbling down the side of the mountain on a trajectory headed straight towards him.

The boulder dropped over a cliff ledge overlooking the road and rolled down the face, spinning right into the back of Brendan's legs and bowling him over.

Unhampered even in the slightest, the boulder continued on its wild and uncontrollable course until it bounced and flung into the burly trunk of a nearby tree, and was finally brought to a stop.

"Owwwww…" Brendan whined, scowling up into the sky as he lay supine in the middle of the rocky path. "Of course I'd be hit by the _single_ rock that happened to roll down the mountain at the _exact_ moment I was passing by and the _exact _place where I was standing out of the entire mountainside."

After a minute or two, when he had finished grumbling, Brendan painfully got up again, his legs feeling as good as splintered matchsticks.

He hobbled slowly over to where the boulder had crashed and was shocked to see it wriggling at the foot of the tree. What Brendan had taken to be a blue boulder unwound from the ball it had curled into to exonerate itself as a tiny, round-snouted creature.

Brendan pulled out his _Pokédex_to scan the new discovery.

"_Bagon, the Rock Head Pokémon. To realize its dreams to one day soar in the sky. It will hurl itself off cliffs and as a result, its head has grown tough and as hard as tempered steel._"

"Huh…so it's a Bagon," Brendan said, returning the _Pokédex_ to his pocket. "I bet the reason that you rolled down half the mountain and into me was that you jumped off from somewhere pretty high up trying to fly."

The Bagon chittered agitatedly to itself with its eyes closed.

"Hey…are you okay?" Brendan asked, gently. Drawing even nearer to it, his eyes widened as he saw that the Bagon was cradling its left arm at an awkward angle. "Oh no, you're injured…"

Brendan surveyed the Pokémon with attentive concern for a moment while it whimpered quietly. Then he stood up to gauge the circumstances.

It was coming upon dusk and he was several hours away from the nearest town with a Pokémon Centre. Once night truly fell, the duvet of darkness would render him much more vulnerable to wild Pokémon attacks.

"I guess we'll just set up camp for the night and bring you with us for now," Brendan surmised. He leaned down to carefully lift Bagon off the ground and carry it but failed. It may have only looked like a boulder, but it sure weighed like one.

"Halo of Arceus, just how heavy are you?!" Brendan hissed through his teeth as he persisted, succeeding only in budging the creature a few inches.

At his words, Bagon broke out the waterworks and began to bawl its eyes out.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Brendan hastily excused himself. "I didn't mean it like that!"

In the end, he simply gave up and called out his Grovyle instead, who lifted Bagon up easily without any trouble at all.

They began searching for a shelter for the night and after about half an hour, Brendan found them a modest but cosy cave tucked away into the side of the mountain that was suitable.

Brendan set about collecting usable pieces of firewood littered around the cave mouth. Once he had a good strong fire crackling inside their new home, he released his Kirlia from its _Poké Ball_as well and fed his Pokémon.

While they ate, he improvised a splint for Bagon, using a straight tree branch he had picked up while hunting for firewood and binding it securely to Bagon's arm with a Silk Scarf from his own backpack that had been gifted to him by a kind lady in Dewford Town.

While he worked, Brendan caught Bagon eyeing his green and white unusual knit cap curiously.

"What, the hat? I never take it off, even when I'm indoors. I've gotten used to wearing it all the time. Bad habit, I guess."

After he was done and the splint had been applied, Bagon ran around in dizzying circles like a windup toy, jubilantly flapping its strapped up arm in tandem with its good one. After several laps, it turned to make a break for the cave entrance and, waddling as fast as its tiny legs could carry it, made a dashing leap right off the edge outside.

Brendan's jaw dropped in disbelief.

"Oh, you are _kidding_ me."

A few moments later, Bagon was sitting back beside the fire, now with both its arms in splints and looking thoroughly crestfallen and slightly sheepish.

"Un-_believable_," Brendan huffed, stared down at the thing with his arms folded.

Bagon's lips trembled as if it were about to burst into tears again.

"Well, since it doesn't look like you're going anywhere soon, you might as well stay with us a bit longer," Brendan sighed, reaching for his Grovyle's food dish and jerking it away from the quietly munching Pokémon.

"Here…you're probably hungry," Brendan said, kneeling down to place the dish in front of Bagon whose miserable face transformed at once into one of delight.

Behind Brendan's back, his Grovyle sulked.

Unable to pull the bowl any closer to itself with both its arms immobilized, Bagon simply smashed its head down into the tray sending pellets flying everywhere as it scoffed greedily while Brendan watched in amusement.

When it came for Brendan to put out the fire for the night all of his Pokémon were already fast asleep by then, and Bagon had gone outside.

Brendan went outside to check on it and found the big-headed Pokémon sitting on the edge of the cliff.

"You're not thinking about jumping off again, are you?" Brendan asked incredulously but Bagon shook its head adamantly.

"What are you doing out here all by yourself, then?"

Bagon jabbed a stubby arm upward. Following the movement, Brendan craned his neck to see the stars overbrimming the night sky in a vivid display like grains of sand along some celestial shoreline, glimmering as they tread the endless expanse of deep velvet blue above them.

"The stars?" Brendan then remembered what it had said on Bagon's entry on the Pokedex. "Oh, the sky! That's right, you wanna fly some day, don't you?"

Bagon nodded happily.

"Bit hard to do without wings," Brendan observed dryly. "But I guess that doesn't stop you from trying." Together, the two gazed into the bright night, admiring it in companionable silence.

After a long while, Brendan felt a light weight against his side and glanced down to see that Bagon had drifted off to sleep sitting next to him. Unable to carry it, he cumbersomely dragged the snoring creature along the ground back into the cave and carefully covered it with a spare blanket from his backpack before returning outside to enjoy the view for a little while longer.

He pulled out his Pokedex and flipped it open, navigating to Bagon's file.

"_Bagon, the Rock Head Pokémon. To realize its dreams to one day soar in the sky. It will hurl itself off cliffs and as a result, its head has grown tough and as hard as tempered steel. It's final, evolved form is the Dragon Pokémon, Salamence._"

Brendan sat there for a long time with an unfathomable expression, gazing at the last line contemplatively.

The next morning, as soon as day broke, Brendan and his Pokémon descended from Meteor Falls to travel to Rustboro City. There, the resident nurse removed Bagon's splints and examined it arms for fractures or breaks.

"Just a few bumps and bruises, nothing major!" the nurse cheerfully assured a vastly relieved Brendan when she eventually returned to the waiting lobby wheeling Bagon out in a steel trolley. "You don't need to worry – Bagons are remarkably tough and cliff-jumping is a pretty common recreational behaviour for their species so they're quite used to it, believe it or not!"

"Thank you! I'm sorry for the trouble," Brendan said gratefully.

"Not at all! He's a cutie, isn't he?" she added dotingly, as Bagon squabbled furiously while helplessly rolling back and forth on his back in the trolley like an upturned beetle, his short tail thumping frantically as it tried to right itself.

"Yeah," Brendan couldn't help but let slip a goofy grin. "He is."

After Bagon was discharged from the Pokémon Centre, Brendan decided that he might as well restock on supplies while he was in the city.

Bagon followed the teen around as he made his rounds, waddling after him wherever he went. Brendan stopped at the _Poké Mart_ to restock on Super Potions, visited the Pokemon Training School where he chatted with a few students and received a Quick Claw from the teacher to whom he thanked profusely while bowing low, ran into Mr. Stone who insisted on dragging him over to the Devon Corporation headquarters for a visit to show him the company's latest experiments on Pokémon fossils, which were deemed to be "promising".

By the time that he was finally done, the sun was waning amidst a fiery orange sky that was streaked with comets of pink clouds as bright and fleecy as cotton candy. Ornate iron-wrought street lamps began flickering awake to embrace the early evening.

He glanced down at his new companion.

"What say we go for some ice cream?"

Brendan purchased two of what the vendor had named Vanillish Cones – vanilla soft serves decorated with a goofy smiley face sketched out of blue icing and edible blue sugar crystals all set in a waffle cone dyed with blue food colouring. Brendan stared at his cone, trying to process how ludicrous of an idea an ice cream Pokémon was.

Afterwards, they wandered down to the large pond in Route 104 and found an old and shoddy wooden bench fronting the water to settle down onto.

As Bagon plopped himself down, the entire bench splintered into two with a loud crack. The small Rock Head Pokémon was dumped onto the ground and promptly burst into a storm of noisy tears.

"Sheesh, I didn't know you were that sensitive about your weight," Brendan said.

They moved to the next bench over which thankfully retained its integrity, albeit with a ponderous groan of wood.

Brendan handed Bagon his unfinished cone as the Pokémon had upset its own after it had toppled over.

As Brendan watched Bagon eat, he recalled what he had read on the _Pokédex_the night before.

"Bagon, listen," Brendan said, quietly. His eyes were downcast and he was absently fidgeting with his hands.

"Look…I – I can't keep you any longer."

Bagon gazed up at him uncomprehendingly with its head cocked.

"I…I just can't." Brendan's voice cracked, as his coherence collapsing into a rambling heap. "It's…when I was a kid…you don't get it…don't understand why…"

"_Why I wear this stupid hat!"_ he burst out, and without warning, he tore off the offending headpiece in anger to reveal three parallel scars, stark white and unsightly, inflicted on the right side of his skull, viciously tearing through a scalp of otherwise kempt dark flat hair.

"When I went cave exploring with my dad when I was eight, I got separated from him and got so scared. And then…and then I ran into a Salamence – and it did this to me, and ever since then…"

He trailed off, unable to bring himself to articulate the trauma that had followed – the frequent nightmares that had extinguished any hope for peaceful sleep or the fact that he couldn't so much as look at a photo of Salamence in an encyclopedia without being seized by an all–consuming terror that left him unbalanced and short for breath.

"Every time I see these scars in the mirror or in my reflection I get reminded of how ugly and repulsive they make me look," Brendan said in self despisal. He replaced the hat on his head, carefully adjusting so that it was sure to cover up the ghost of his childhood wound. "That's why I wear this all the time now. I got sick of people staring and pointing at me."

His eyelashes bristling with hot tears, Brendan wiped them away with his forearm and gazed down at Bagon, who was bouncing up and down, completely oblivious to the trainer's anecdote.

"I – I don't even know if you can understand what I'm saying," Brendan gave a shaky laugh that was half a sob of amused hopelessness. "I mean, I know that you Bagons are pretty thick-headed and because of that, you're not as good as other Pokémon with picking up on complex human language…"

Bagon continued to bounce, chattering joyfully as it enjoyed its ice cream.

"If I keep you, I know that you'll become strong. So strong. And that one day, you'll become a Salamence. And when that happens, I just…I just can't. I won't be strong enough to be the trainer you need, anymore. I'm just too scared and too weak to do it – I'm sorry. You deserve someone stronger and braver than me. You deserve a normal, fully functioning trainer who can form a healthy relationship with you. I can't give you that. I'm sorry."

Bagon had probably not understood a word of everything he had just said.

"Bye, Bagon."

After a few moments, Bagon glanced around to see that Brendan was no longer sitting with him anymore and was gone. Believing that the trainer had simply gone to get more ice cream for them, he wiggled to settle himself comfortably into the bench with his stumpy legs outstretched over the edge, ecstatic at the idea of more Vanillish Cones to come.


	2. Chapter 2

**Skyward**

**Chapter #2 - Clockwork Hearts  
**

_~ Disclaimers: I do NOT own Pokemon or anything associated with it._

Brendan opened his eyes, his body lying stiff and straight on the mattress.

He barely got any sleep last night, again. Two hours at most.

But not only that – he had also lost his appetite. Worse still, he found that he could not battle well anymore, having lost most of his recent matches.

It had been nearly a week since he had said his goodbye to Bagon. During that interval he had departed Rustboro City and traveled on to Oldale Town where he had rented a room at an inn for a few nights while he was staying in town.

He could not understand it. The Bagon had been no different than any other wild Pokémon he had encountered. He had simply cared for it until it had recovered to a working healthy state again because it had needed someone to protect it, and that had been the end of it. So why? Why was he wracked with such a terrible, sinking guilt?

Shaking his despondency off like a heavy blanket, Brendan forced himself to get up off the bed and get ready for the day.

He washed his face, brushed his teeth and changed into his daywear; pulling his cap meticulously over the ghoulish scars on his head – going through all the motions automatically and lifelessly, as if he weren't really there.

Numbly, he left his room to go downstairs for breakfast, closing the door softly behind him and making sure to lock it.

At the Poké Mart there were two schoolgirls chatting amiably with each other while browsing the shelves. As he passed them on his way to the counter to pay for his items, he happened to catch a few words of their conversation.

"…heard that there was a Bagon over on Route 104 that's just sitting there on its own. Apparently, it's been there for about a week now…"

Brendan's head whipped back around to stare at the girls in shock.

_No…it couldn't be…you're kidding…_

He stopped dead in his tracks as he listened to them, his heart rate accelerating.

"A nurse from the Pokémon Centre in Rustboro City went down to try and bring it back, but it won't budge at all."

Dumping all the goods he had gathered onto the nearest shelf, Brendan turned around and ran out the store. Outside, he seized his bike which had been resting against the wall next to the store entrance.

Kicking it around, he vaulted himself onto the seat and took off, cycling heedlessly down the road, forcing pedestrians to hurriedly vacate his path. They hurled angry shouts at him as he flashed past.

He pedaled without stopping all the way back to Route 104.

When he finally arrived, it was sundown. Throwing his bike down into the grass beside the dirt road, Brendan dashed toward that pond where he had left Bagon behind without even looking back once.

He could already see the Rock Head Pokémon looking up and smiling, brightening at the sight of the trainer, not having moved even the slightest from the same bench where Brendan had left it.

But that wild, desperate illusion was dispelled in an instant and Brendan blinked rapidly, only seeing an empty bench.

A lump lodged in Brendan's throat, hampering his ragged breathing. Hollow disappointment swelled inside him like a crushing weight, spreading to his very nerves and making his hands tremor uncontrollably.

"_A nurse from the Pokémon Centre in Rustboro City went down to try and bring it back…_"

Breath hitching sharply with a spark of hope, Brendan sprinted at once in the direction of Rustboro City.

The nurse stared at him with her eyes widened in surprise when he burst through the front doors of the Pokémon Centre. She was the same one who had checked up on Bagon when Brendan had brought him in.

"What are you doing back here?"

"Bagon…the Bagon…where?..." Brendan wheezed.

She gave Brendan a cold, hostile look.

"He's gone."

Brendan could only gaze at her, blank and uncomprehending.

"G–Gone? What do you mean, 'gone'?"

"Gone as in I went down to visit him two days ago, like I did every day once I heard what he was doing, and he wasn't there anymore."

He did not want to believe it.

"What kind of a trainer are you? Just leaving your Pokémon behind, abandoning them like that?"

"He wasn't mine…He–He was wild…" Brendan could only stammer out.

"_Would a wild Pokémon sit there and wait a week for a person to come back?_"

Brendan shrank back, wounded, recoiling from the nurse's words that pierced him like a knife.

"Get out of this Pokémon Centre."

"Please…you must have seen where…something…anything. Please, tell me!"

"Get out."

Brendan knew that it was pointless to continue pushing her. He slowly turned around and dragged himself back through the glass double doors he came in.

As soon as he was outside, he let himself slump to the ground in inconsolable dejection. He balled his hands into trembling fists and pressed them tightly against his closed eyelids.

Days passed. Weeks passed. And then months.

The healing process was agonizingly slow. He did not remember exactly when but sometime after that day he had returned to the Pokémon Centre in Rustboro, Brendan had begun to write letters to the only person he felt would understand his predicament; sealing these letters in red envelopes before posting them.

Brendan didn't even realise it but eventually, he began to subconsciously avoid wild Pokémon unless absolutely necessary, keeping his distance from them. He started to sleep and eat again, and even regained the majority of the glimmering battle form he had lost.

One day, as he was crossing through Route 115 just by Mt. Chimney, he happened to pass by a Swablu lying in the grass next to the footpath, letting out shrill and dire squawks while its fluffy white wings fluttered feebly. As he passed by, the Swablu peered forlornly up at him with its beady black eyes.

Brendan hesitated for the barest of seconds before he squared his shoulders and forged resolutely onwards, ignoring the Swablu. As he walked away, its gradually fading mournful cries continued to ring in his ears, sounding almost accusatory.

After nearly seven months, Brendan found himself back at Meteor Falls, at last.

Brendan had arrived in Sootopolis City a month ago and had been caught up in the middle of the cataclysmic incident involving the legendaries Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza. Following the narrow aversion of the crisis, Wallace had given him the HM05 technique, Waterfall, as a token of gratitude.

In the back of his mind, Brendan had remembered how on his initial expedition of Meteor Falls that there had been unknown areas at the higher levels that he had been unable to reach. But now that he had acquired Waterfall…

Brendan was not the type to put a place behind him unless he had seen utterly everything that it had to offer. That had been a large part of his motivation for becoming a Pokémon trainer in the first place. He wished with all his heart to travel as far as he could reach and to go anywhere he wanted; to see quaint beautiful towns, wondrous breathtaking landscapes and amazing exotic Pokémon. For him, being a trainer promised an endless generation of vibrant sights and colours that he could only dream of back in Littleroot Town.

Even after obtaining the HM, Brendan had deliberately put off returning to that place for another month. However, a part of him deep down still knew that sooner or later, he could not go on ignoring Meteor Falls no matter what personal feelings he held. The longer he delayed, the heavier it weighed on his thoughts and the worse his inner turmoil became.

While in Slateport City, Brendan stayed up the whole night in his waterfront hotel room mulling over it while staring out over the brightly lit, merry harbor bustling with people and listening to the breezy lapping of the waves. He realised that not a single day lapsed where he did not think about going back to Meteor Falls to finish exploring the areas that had been inaccessible to him the first time.

Finally and begrudgingly, he accepted the fact that it wasn't a problem of if he would go back but of how long until he did. In the end, he relented and decided to go back the very next day.

Brendan now stood outside at the base of the cave where he had once been mowed down by the most spirited and bullheaded blue bowling ball he had ever encountered. At the memory, a ghost of a smile flitted across Brendan's lips but evaporated as quickly as it had formed when Brendan felt a subsequent pang of guilt shoot through him.

Steeling himself both mentally and physically, Brendan strode forward and entered into the pitch black darkness that awaited.

Like crooked rows of jagged teeth, the interior of Meteor Falls was filled with speleothems. From fragile, spindly ones to massive conical columns like oak trees, they were formed from a purple salt-like mineral that glimmered like crystals. Even the grey stone of the walls and ceiling sparkled with the same substance so that it seemed as if the entire cave was clouded in a gentle violet haze.

Calling upon his Milotic, he clambered atop it and together they steadily cruised up the waterfalls throughout the cave, fighting against the surging, frothing torrents that hammered mercilessly down upon them.

Once he set foot on the coarse black sand of the shoreline that ringed the brink of the highest waterfall, Brendan disembarked from his Milotic and thanked it. The majestic and elegant creature gracefully bowed its head in reply and was recalled into its _Poké Ball__._

Almost at once, he was ambushed by an unnatural chill that had nothing to do with the icy cave air that made him spin around, his pupils magnifying in shock.

He had explored dozens of caves before and none of them had given him the feeling of trepidation and unease that this part of the domain which he had not tread upon before did. It felt almost like a speechless menacing threat coming from the very core of the upper cave itself.

There was movement behind the veil of darkness and slowly, warily, Brendan took a few steps forward, trying to define what it was. It seemed as if something was approaching him.

And then out of the gloom, it emerged close enough so that Brendan could see what it was in full and a horror unparalleled by any other he had experienced in his entire life fell upon him, rooting him to the spot where he stood.

A Salamence.

The huge and terrifying dragon Pokémon crouched toward Brendan on all fours, baring its fangs with a hissing snarl. Its body swung around and its tail lashed out like a whip, knocking the trainer right off the edge of the waterfall and back down to the floor below.

As he crashed and tumbled along the ground like a tossed toy, Brendan felt his backpack slide off and skitter away from him. The top cover came off and the five Poké Balls of his current party spilled out.

The Salamence leapt down to where Brendan had been thrown; the impact of its earthshaking landing marked by a shockwave of air that made the boy shield his face with a hand.

As Brendan scrambled to back away and put more distance between them, he felt a second chill on the nape of his neck and turned his head as slowly as he dared.

_No…_

Another Salamence was looming behind him at a distance of about thirty metres. And even as he stared, unable to tear his terrified gaze away, yet another crept out of the darkness to join the second, both breathing out rattling primal growls.

Brendan was frozen still, paralysed with panic and fear. His Poké Balls and bag were scattered far out of his reach with the advancing trio standing between him and his five best tools to defend himself.

As the Salamence closed in on the trainer, boxing him in, an unearthly bestial roar split the current atmosphere like a peal of thunder making them hesitate in surprise.

Amidst a vortex of wind and beating wings, a fourth Salamence descended upon Brendan.

However, unlike the others, the newcomer landed with its back to him, facing its three fellows with its red axe-shaped wings raised and spread to their utmost in a display of warning.

Somehow, instinctively perhaps, Brendan knew who the late entry standing in front of him was and his dry throat could only manage a hoarse, incredulous whisper.

"…Bagon?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Skyward**

**Chapter #3 (Final) - Skyward**

_~ Disclaimers: I do NOT own Pokemon or anything associated with it._

"…Bagon?"

Brendan stood there in sheer astonishment, hardly daring to believe that the Salamence poised before him, shielding him from the others, was the Bagon that he had parted with over half a year ago.

The Salamence did not answer Brendan or even look at him as his full attention was focused upon his equals, staring down all three with a challenging glare.

And then the inevitable confrontation began.

One of the opposing Salamence undraped its wings and blasted forward, screaming through the air like a jet, but was decisively repelled by a powerful stream of Dragon Breath from the one protecting the human.

The other two took advantage of their comrade's initiative by moving in close in the meantime to engage their rogue brother in close combat.

Brendan's Salamence was forced to duel the other two at once at point blank range in an exchange of Dragon Claw attacks. Despite being outnumbered, he still managed to hold his own, blocking and dodging a good portion of their swipes and strikes and returning as much damage as he took from them both.

With the trainer-friendly Salamence occupied with defending on two fronts at once, the third Salamence who had been the first to strike went for his open back, taking advantage of the distraction and the blind spot. It swiftly closed the distance between them and lashed out with a Dragon Claw that streaked trails of white light through the air.

The tail of Brendan's Salamence unexpectedly flicked upwards in a fluid arcing motion that was heavy with momentum to strike the ambushing Salamence in the base of the jaw in an uppercut strong enough to dislodge bone and it was toppled onto its back with a resounding crash, its surprise attack neutralised before it had a chance to connect.

Drawing inspiration, the remaining duo struck out with their tails too. One coiled around a foreleg of Brendan's Salamence and the other snagged one of his hind legs. The tails pulled taut to stretch the Salamence's limbs in opposite directions.

Having already recovered from the surprise blow, the third Salamence launched itself with a burst of air again at the awkwardly restrained one, landing a direct Double-Edge attack that sent Brendan's ally across the cave at a terrible velocity before he impacted the far wall in an explosion of dust and flying rubble.

Brendan's Salamence arose out of the dissipating cloud of dust on his feet, mostly unharmed apart from a couple of bruises along its body.

However, as he squared off for a fresh bout against his enemies, the steady beat of pulsing wings interrupted them.

Brendan watched in horror as another pair of Salamence hovered down from the highest level of the cave to form ranks with the first three, possibly attracted by the din of the battle.

Undeterred, Brendan's Salamence let out a shrieking roar rumbling with pugnacious defiance that was answered fivefold.

The battle began anew.

For a brief moment, Brendan thought that his supporter might stand a chance, but that childish optimism was reduced to cinders as his Salamence became quickly overwhelmed, hammered and bruised by one attack after another as the horde of enemy Salamence unleashed their fury on him without a shred of mercy.

_I need to help him!_

Brendan tried to crawl over to where his party lay in jumbled Poké Balls but his limbs would not obey him at all. He could not break the effect of the spell, the source of which was these manifestations of his darkest fear standing not even twenty metres from him, and could only lie there, petrified.

_"Help me!"_

It was a futile outburst borne out of desperation but miraculously, as if his plea had somehow reached them in their stasis, the Poké Balls quivered and then burst open one by one, releasing their passengers in a multitude of flashing lights – Milotic, Absol, Aggron, Gardevoir and Sceptile.

Without waiting for an order from their trainer, Brendan's Pokémon sprang into action at once, splitting up and racing to confront the Salamence gang.

Absol threw its head back while dashing straight at the group of dragons. The elongated horn on its head glowed and fired off a crescent shaped blade of energy that spun through the air and hit one of them in the back of its shoulder, catching its attention.

The Salamence stomped around to face Absol, snarling, and retaliated by propelling itself straight at the mammalian Pokémon with its wings outstretched and skull primed for a debilitating Headbutt attack.

Gardevoir glided in front of Absol and conjured a number of translucent hexagonal panes that all attached to each other to form a defensive charm which repelled the Salamence's charge with a bright _ping_ like ringing metal.

All the other wild Salamence, too, wheeled about in order to deal with the wave of new threats assailing them from behind, abandoning the caning of their fellow Salamence.

One aimed a Dragon Breath at the Sceptile rushing it, but the jungle gecko sprang nimbly into the air with an incredible lightness, somersaulting several times in quick succession over the head of its attacker. Landing precisely on the Salamence's back, Sceptile slammed down with an unavoidable Leaf Blade.

Brendan's Salamence seized a laggard and twisting it back about, he brought it in close until their foreheads clanged together with a sickening crunch. The Headbutt left the other Salamence reeling and dazed with pain. Brendan's ally instantly followed up with a Dragon Claw that pummeled it right down into the earth, and it did not get up again afterwards.

In the meantime, Gardevoir and Absol worked together to try and bring down their opponent but were unable to make much headway. After Gardevoir would block each physical attack with Reflect, Absol would then charge in to counterattack, but was unable to deal any real significant damage.

Just as Gardevoir was on the verge of directly attacking the Salamence itself, the latter spread its jaw wide to charge a swirling ball of dazzlingly bright orange energy. The Hyper Beam cut through the air toward Gardevoir and Absol.

Brendan's Salamence pounced in front of the two Pokémon and fired off his own Hyper Beam. The two arrows of energy met and struggled momentarily against one another before merging into a singular force that immediately collapsed upon itself in a tremendously powerful explosion that sent every surrounding combatant flying. Absol was slammed into the base of a nearby amethyst stalagmite while Gardevoir and the friendly Salamence were strewn chaotically far across the cave.

The enemy Salamence was the first to recover, appearing out of the thick, dark smoke that poured in all directions from the epicentre of the devastation to finish them off.

Milotic suddenly streaked high through the air like an elegant twirling ribbon.

With a high-pitched whine much like a laser, it unleashed a jagged bolt of Ice Beam that locked the attacking Salamence in place who shrieked in pain as its legs were encrusted in blooming crystals of ice so ruthlessly cold that they burned like fire.

Gardevoir, Absol and the allied Salamence then combined attacks in order to take down the trapped Salamence for good, easily smashing right through and shattering the thick and tall ice crystals imprisoning it.

Having already dispatched the Salamence it had initially encountered on its own at some point during the battle, Sceptile had now joined Aggron in a pitched double battle against the remaining two wild Salamence.

The battle was brought to a standstill when Milotic, Gardevoir, Absol and the allied Salamence flooded onto the scene, all four of them filing up at Sceptile and Aggron's backs to reinforce them. It was now six on two.

Recognising an unwinnable fight, the pair retreated without further ado, flexing their wings and taking flight, soaring back up into the darkness behind that high waterfall at the top shelf of the cave from whence they came.

After they were gone, Sceptile spat in disgust at their cowardice before joining the rest of Brendan's Pokémon, who had all crowded around their trainer in collective concern.

"I'm okay – I'm not hurt," Brendan assured them, flashing a weak smile as he finally stood up with some trouble. "You all…actually heard me when I called, thank you…and thank _you_ –" he added quietly, directing his words at the only Salamence left behind; the Pokémon that had protected him and who was one that had run him over so long ago, "– for saving me."

Aware of the fact that it was possible that more Salamence could attack them again at any time, Brendan led the group through the nearest exit to a natural rock platform outside, which they found to be very close to the top of Meteor Falls.

Even now, it was still difficult for Brendan to look at the Salamence meandering along at his side without feeling an anxiety that was almost suffocating, and did his best to avoid eye contact.

But when Brendan glimpsed Salamence's clawed feet scraping the ground as they turned around to point at him at the borderline of his vision, he forced himself to raise his sight to their owner.

Salamence had his head downcast in a deferential sort of way and his front legs were bent. For one confused second, the boy thought that Salamence was bowing to him but then understood the meaning of the invitation.

"You want me to ride on your back?"

Salamence fixed Brendan with a dark eye that gleamed with affirmation.

This was the small Pokémon that Brendan had rescued and cared for over half a year ago – the one that recklessly leapt of cliffs, broke benches and happily quaffed down his own ice cream. It was the same obstinate and vibrant soul. But, he was still a Salamence.

In his mind's eye, he had a terrible vision of this gentle Salamence violently turning on him, slicing grievous cuts across the head with his claws and spattering crimson blood everywhere just like the vicious beast that ravaged him as a child had done.

Cracks of uncertainty and apprehension flitted through Brendan. No matter what, he still could not shake off that connate fear that existed within him like some irremovable parasite. He took an unconscious step backwards; a physiological response that was not missed by the Salamence who did nothing to react but to hold its posture exactly, unblinking and patient.

_I can't…_

Just as the pathetic lament echoed in Brendan's mind, he sensed a wave of peacefulness wash over him like warm water. This was followed by another, and then another, and yet another; each tide gradually rinsing away the reservations and insecurities that tormented him.

Subsequently, Brendan felt a shift in his mental equilibrium, like a door that had been shut for a long time had been thrown suddenly open. And then, there came a fountain of unfamiliar feelings that were not his – aching loneliness, hopeful yearning, tempered patience, trust, and underlying all of it was a burning flame of unbreakable and honest loyalty.

Brendan glanced behind him and saw his Gardevoir lowering it arms and opening its eyes, and he understood. It had projected its Calm Mind onto him to soothe his inner conflict and then used its powers to establish an empathic link between his mind and Salamence's, allowing him to directly experience Salamence's unspoken emotions firsthand.

It gave Brendan the conviction he needed but had been unable to bridge by himself. With new confidence, he reduced the gap between Salamence and himself until they were finally face to face. Lifting a hand, he hesitated for a breath's duration as if making sure of his ability, and then placed it on the side of that long blue neck.

For a moment he stood there, breathless, wondrously marveling at the sheer fact that he was able to simply touch a Salamence like this after so many years of not being capable of even looking at a picture of them. He turned back to his Gardevoir.

"Thank you…I…" he said, at a loss for how he could convey the level of gratitude he had, but the graceful Psychic-Type did not seem to require anything more and curtsied back.

Salamence gave Brendan a gentle and encouraging nudge in the ribs with its snout, bringing him out of his reverie.

"Right…I can do this!"

Using the inclined leg that Salamence offered to him as a foothold, Brendan hoisted himself up onto the dragon's back and perched himself at the bottom of the neck where he would be the safest from the slipstream with his feet on either side.

Taking a moment to check that Brendan was securely lodged first, Salamence then took a running start by making a headlong dash for the end of the ledge.

Brendan immediately had misgivings about what was about to occur.

"Wait…you're not going to –"

Salamence hurled them right off the cliff and they both plummeted straight down the mountainside.

"WHAT THE HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL?!" Brendan screamed.

Practically in free fall, he frantically gripped with everything he had around the girth of Salamence's neck as he was dragged by the dragon's much heavier mass toward the earth at breakneck speed, his fingers a brush away from slipping off. "I THOUGHT YOU COULD FLY!"

Salamence cast his wings out wide and straight on either side with a sound akin to windswept sails and they curved sharply out of their dive until they were suddenly gliding silkily along a perfectly horizontal plane.

The Dragon Pokémon glanced behind him at Brendan and the light of amusement glimmering in its eyes could not have conveyed the message any clearer.

_Just kidding_.

"Jerk." Brendan muttered under his breath.

With a mighty blast from his wings, Salamence launched them upwards again into the fathomless heights of the deep and pristine blue night sky. Brendan's hands redoubled the strength of their grasp to the dragon as Salamence carved a steep ascent to gain altitude.

Peering down, Brendan saw the entirety of Hoenn rolled out beneath them from the smoking crater of Mt. Chimney as phosphoric as a live coal all the way to the distant South-East islands where the Battle Tower rose lone and tall above all else with the moonlight glinting off its glass structure and across to a small white patch at the foot of the mainland that was actually the beach of Slateport.

They swooped, plunged, wove, looped and strafed without any restraint through the balmy night air with Brendan laughing giddily all the while as he enjoyed the various maneuvers that Salamence pulled off as much as he would a roller coaster.

Salamence climbed even higher and Brendan thought that he was striving for the heavens themselves as they approached a dense blanket of sheer white that might have been the sky's ceiling and before he knew it, everything was cold, moist and foggy to the point that he was virtually blind…

It all vanished as quickly as he had been engulfed. His sight returned to him and it was as if they had broken through a wall and trespassed into an entirely different world.

The moon reigned as round and bright as the sun during the day over an endless sea of clouds just under them that stretched on as far as the sky itself like some lunar-soaked desert of bumpy fields and swirling fluffy constructs the size of castles. As they cruised lazily over the tideless pale and lumpy ocean, a flock of Altaria rose up below out from its depths to accompany them, their soft calls like song.

Brendan shivered. Not only had he been drenched through and through from condensation but whereas the temperature had been pleasantly warm closer to the ground, all the way up here it was absolutely freezing and was only made worse by the wind dragging and snapping at his clothes as they flew.

There was nothing but hushed silence up in this secret world, save for the gushing wind moaning in Brendan's ears and the occasional bar of the Altarias' music. The quiet almost had a solemnity to it, as if paying respect to the grandeur of the transcendent wonder that was the immeasurable void looming right over the two where the blue sky darkened into the beginnings of space.

Here, before the splendour of the engorged full moon that seemed so close and a hundred billion haphazard battalions of winking stars, the sights of what was beyond their tiny world were in full bloom – planetary bodies like spherical giants, glowing blue and green trails of mysterious cosmic aurora and multi-coloured miasmic fireworks of unimaginable phenomena.

Eventually, the two returned to the ground after whiling away most of the night away flying, with Salamence touching down lightly adjacent to a tall and majestic waterfall at the base of Meteor Falls.

The earlier titanic battle had left them caked in dirt and grime so Brendan was thankful for the opportunity to wash, wasting no time in jumping straight into the rocky pool that caught the waterfall without even removing his clothes first.

Scooping up the icy water, Brendan rinsed his face four or five times, each cold slap stinging but leaving him ultimately refreshed. Pinching his nose, he dipped his entire head below the surface and then popped back up again a few seconds later.

He glanced over to where Salamence was currently showering under the dense curtain of falling water and found himself struck by the way that stray droplets streaked down its low slung strong torso.

_This is the Pokémon that risked his own life by turning on his own kind to save mine. Even after when I had turned my back on him and wasted that amazing amount of faith and trust that kept him waiting all that time me to come back, and I never did. _

Acting on an inner compulsion, Brendan waded across the basin to the dragon Pokémon. He reached up to cup both sides of Salamence's muzzle in his gloves and pulled the beast's head down until it was low enough for him to stamp a firm kiss on the tip of his snout and then rest his forehead against it.

"I'm sorry."

Brendan's simple apology was weighted in tones of pained sorrow and indelible regret.

With those glittering rubies of his stashed away behind fallen eyelids, Brendan felt Salamence's tongue breezily lap once at his face – a universal expression common to all Pokémon that communicated nothing but pure affection.

Brendan couldn't help but smile without opening his eyes. It was a simple answer for a simple apology. He leaned his head around the snout to plant his lips against the corner of Salamence's long mouth.

Salamence's maw unsealed and his tongue ventured forth again to swipe Brendan's cheek, but this time it wasn't a gesture of forgiveness – the way that it skated over his skin, prodding at the lobe of his ear and sketching the shadow of his jaw was much more intimate than just friendly interaction.

As Salamence's tongue flicked in and out from under that snout, darting across the boy trainer's face, Brendan let his mouth open so he could introduce his partner's slimy and much larger sensory appendage to his own but his quarry was too busy moving to its own rhythm and they ended up bumping or grazing only two or three times.

Brendan drew back after a few minutes of their outstretched tongues dancing and twisting sloppily together out in the open air, his eyes wide as if though he had just realised what they had done.

_Wow. Did I really just?..._

Even as that bashful thought transpired, Brendan couldn't help but notice that Salamence tasted comparable to raw meat except, warm and moist. He thought to himself that he should probably start getting used to having his steaks rare.

The two went back to cleaning themselves in the rock pool. After they were done they prepared to depart the area.

"The others are probably wondering what's taking us so long," Brendan surmised, as he clambered atop his companion.

Salamence threw its wings out and the two took to the skies once more where the colours of a newly minted morning were gradually spreading across the distant horizon and draining the last dregs of night away.

_A/N: And that's the end of it! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it._


End file.
